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http://www.kvh.com/kvhsatcom/


Edoardo wrote:
Hi,

I am searching for some good source of information about installing a
satellite internet connection on sailing boats.
What's the best solution?
Is there a website/forum/group that is specifically talking about this?

Thanks a lot for your help
Eddy

[dog]

On 2006-07-07 16:10:22 -0400, said:

http://www.kvh.com/kvhsatcom/


Edoardo wrote:
Hi,

I am searching for some good source of information about installing a
satellite internet connection on sailing boats.
What's the best solution?
Is there a website/forum/group that is specifically talking about this?

Thanks a lot for your help
Eddy

Now, there is also a vast difference between getting high-speed
internet access at a marina or near shore via cell or wifi and getting
semi-high speed internet access from the open seas. Most of the work
I've done with satellite systems has been media related, from the
reporting side, and the newer systems can give you about 128k full
duplex, but are designed to be on a fixed ground location. To do this
from a small sailboat in the open ocean requires gyro-stabilized
antenna as noted by others. This type of equipment is not only
expensive, but ungodly power-hungry.

This isn't to say it isn't possible to do from a sailboat at sea...but
it is very, very expensive to do so. The boat would have to be
capable of generating enough power to keep the equipment powered up for
however long you want to use it. The equipment ain't cheap. The cost
of service is not cheap either, generally being billed on a time or
data rate basis. None of the purely internationally available
satellite providers that I know of give a flat-rate fee. There is no
incentive for them to do so. DirectPC does, but they're only available
in the United States for the most part and their uplink speed is
generally below 30kbps.